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Time to say goodbye

from Fabian, 2011/08/07

I was a graduate student when Ujwal and I met online and decided to start this project together. Mac OS
X back then was still a novelty for many UNIX geeks, and it was missing a good terminal emulator. We hoped that iTerm could fill
this role. For me, it does. Thanks to the effort by all iTerm developers and the support from our users, I believe iTerm has become
one of the best terminal emulator for Mac OS X.

Mac OS X has progressed a lot since we started iTerm. There has been a lot going on in my life too. I got my Ph.D.,
did my postdoc, and now I am working as neuroscientist trying to solve mysteries of the brain. Yet as a Mac developper, I'm really
behind the time. I don't have time to learn the latest things. I have to admit I can no longer contribute to iTerm. There are more
suitable things for me. It is time for me to say goodbye.

As Chineses say, all feasts come to an end (天下没有不散的宴席). My fellow developers and our iTerm users, this has been
a great one for me. Thank you all.

New Japanese localization package

2009/12/9

Once again, Tomoaki Okayama has created a Japanese localization package for the latest 0.10 release. To download, check our Localization page.

Release 0.10

2009/10/7

The focus for this release has been on improving performance, stability and reliability. There are a few new features too.

Smart window placement - new terminals are position to avoid overlap with existing ones

Open new tab in previous directory (See FAQ to get this to work)

Improved drawing performance, particularly when the scrollback buffer is full

Website Redesign

Just finished the brand new design for our website. I hope you all enjoy the new look.

New localization packages

2008/9/29

We have a Japanese localiztion package for the new 0.9.6 from Tomoaki Okayama. To download, check our Localization page.

Release 0.9.6

2008/9/24

This is our first release after Leopard was released. Besides the Leopard support, 0.9.6 has the following features and fixes:

"Blur" effect for transparent windows

Full screen mode now supports Spaces and multi-monitor setups.

Automatically set up the locale in terminal sessions.

Dropping a folder to the iTerm icon opens a new sesssion in the folder path.

A bunch of UI improvements, including:

New option to prompt a warning when a multi-tab window is to be closed.

Double-clicking the tab bar now launches a new session.

Bookmarks are now sorted alphabetically.

Double-clicking in the bookmark window now launches a bookmark.

Editing profile names is now correctly implemented.

As usual, there are many bug fixes including

Several keyboard issues are fixed.

Several fixes for the UTF and double-width characters.

No more execessive log entries in the system log.

Fixed a bug that crashes iTerm when using Applescripts.

Greatly enhanced stability.

New localization packages

2007/2/28

To download, check our Localization page. Also updated is the simplified Chinese package for the latest iTerm.

Release 0.9.5

2007/2/1

After several months of developping, we proudly present you the latest release of iTerm. Many users have provided us with great feed backs and helped us nail down bugs. Lots of thanks to all of you. Here is the change list:

Full screen mode.

xterm 256 color support.

Much better wrapping behavior.

Support for unlimited scrollback size

Option to hide scrollbar.

Press TAB key to open a new session with a command from the Execute field.

Go Full Screen!

2007/1/24

Happy 2007!! We are continuing working on improving our iTerm. The first exciting new feature we are introducing in the new year is the support for the full screen mode. You can turn any terminal window into full screen. Although the tab bar will be hidden, you can still use your keyboard to navigate between tabs under the full screen mode. You can go to the download page and test the latest CVS build.

0.9.4 for Panther

2006/12/21

Merry Christmas to everybody! The build for Panther is finally available. This build includes a few post-0.9.4 fixes. For Tiger users, please download the latest CVS build (0.9.4.1221). It will be our last build before Christmas.

Release 0.9.4

2006/12/4

This version further improves on stability. Further more, we changed the font rendering to make it more in line with other Cocoa applications. Lastly, we have an updated Help that reflects the latest changes in the GUI. We encourage all users who use previous versions to upgrade. New changes include:

New font rendering code.

Updated Help documentation.

Improved support for the wide glyphs, especially for the eastern asian languages.

Added a Google command in the context menu to launch a search session with selected text.

Improved speed.

Enhanced stability.

Other bug fixes and GUI enhancements as usual.

Go to the Download page and check it out. We have Tiger only version now. A Panther version will be released after a few issues are addressed.

Font rendering

2006/11/29

For people who have complained the less than ideal font rendering behavior of iTerm, we hear you, loud and clear. Our latest cvs build hopefully alleviates some of your pain. You can go to the download page and check it out. If you have played with the stroke width setting before, you might need to set it to 0 before you can see our new rendering effects:

defaults write iTerm StrokeWidth -float 0

Release 0.9.3

2006/11/11

This is mainly a bug fix version. The stability has been greatly enhancced. Random crashes that plagued previous 0.9.x version should be largely eliminated. Other changes include:

Terminfo support is here!

2006/11/1

Our latest CVS build features terminfo support. The keyboard mapping of a session will now use the terminfo library. Your customized keymappings will override the terminfo library though. So you should probably remove some settings in your keyboard profile for you to see terminfo at work.

This CVS build also fixes a few embarrassing bugs in the 0.9.2 release. Go to the Download page and check it out.

Release 0.9.2

2006/10/29

This new release features a new preference system. It is based on the same "Profiles-oriented" idea of previous version, with enhancement targeted toward the user experiences. The new changes include:

A Change of preferences settings:

Move bookmark tab to a separate window. Added an option to display bookmark window on startup.

Move profiles window outside of Preference Panel

The Profiles window shows profiles on the left and their contents on the right.

Now allows to rename a profile.

Now allows to edit existing keymapping.

Changed Preference Panel into 5 tabs. Any changes in these settings are immediate effecitve. Ok/Cancel buttons are gone.

Renamed Configure window to Info to avoid confusion.

Made the window long to make it look like an Info window.

Cmd-I to open and close window.

Added a button to allow updating.

Re-ordered main menu.

added a bookmark menu. Opening a window or a tab is controlled by option key.

Moved tab operations into Windows menu.

Added "Return to Default Size" menu item.

Script menu no longer shows when there are no scripts found.

Added option to quit iTerm when all windows are closed

Enhanced About dialog. It's now shown on startup whenever you installed a new version.

Now iTerm is able to check updates automatically using Sparkle framework.

Added support for handling URLs. The following macros can be used in handler's command: $$URL$$, $$HOST$$, $$USER$$, $$PASSWORD$$, $$PORT$$, $$PATH$$. For example, a bookmark's command is: telnet -l $$USER$$ $$HOST$$ $$PORT$$, and the URL is: telnet://joe@fancyland.com:23. This will give you this command: telnet -l joe fancyland.com 23

Allowing users to specify parameters in bookmarks' command. For example, if the command is ssh $$User Name$$@myserver.com, when you start this session, iTerm will ask you to enter the "User Name", then plug your input into the command and run the session.

Added support for the ESC sequence to show/hide cursor.

Added a visual to indicate whether "send to all session" is turned on or not.

Primitive support for terminfo/termcap. The termcap definition for a key is used when there is no customized keymapping.

Enhanced stability.

Many many bug fixes and GUI enhancements.

You can find out more details in the ChangeLog. Go to the Download page and check it out.

iTerm It All!

2006/10/26

A true geek does everything in command lines, web, ftp, everything. Or maybe your more modest goal is just to get the telnet link to work. Now iTerm features the support to associate URLs with your bookmarks. You can set up a bookmark session with a command like this:

telnet -l $$USER$$ $$HOST$$ $$PORT$$

and then tell OS X that iTerm will be the default handler for the telnet protocol. Next time you click a link in a Safari window such as telnet://joe@myserver.net:80, voila, there is your telnet session with the user name, host address and port number passed to it.

Go to the Download page and check it out, or if you are using recent CVS buildings, click "Check For Update" from the iTerm menu.

Sparkling New!

2006/10/16

In the latest cvs build, we have added Sparkle framework into our iTerm. That means, now the application will check the update, download the new version and install it all by itself. Well, with your permission, of course.

Moving on

2006/10/14

We received many good feeedbacks on our 0.9.0 release. In the meanwhile, we are moving on to the next release to address many issues that users have raised. The main focus on 0.9.1 version will be the user interface. We will release CVS builds periodically. You are welcome to test-drive the new UI and send us your feedback. Be warned these are alpha quality and you shouldn't rely your critical job on them.

Release 0.9.0!!!

2006/9/22

Thanks to all the people who sent in their suggestion, feedback and bug reports. iTerm 0.9.0 is finally here. We have made the transistion to the new PSMTabBarControl. It gives iTerm a Safari-looking tab system. Further more, it supports drag and drop. This is a major upgrade from 0.8.2. The changes include:

A brand new Safari-like tab look.

Growl support.

Support for Unsanity's Smart Crash Reporter.

Added support for many xterm's window size/position escape sequences.

Enhanced stability.

Fixes for cmd-click URL selection.

Many many bug fixes and GUI enhancements.

You can find out more details in the ChangeLog. Go to the Download page and check it out.

Pre-Release

2006/9/22

We are almost ready to put out a new release. The latest CVS build is therefore called Pre-Release. Since we do not think a little bump of number after the 2nd decimal point justifies the change in the release, we are moving to the 0.9.x era. The latest change include a fix of CMD-click to open a URL. Happy clicking!

Localizations

2006/9/22

Up to today, we have Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Korean localizations. We do not speak most of these languages, at least not well enough to create a complete translation. Our users offered us their help. However, iTerm is still under active developping, and there are lots of changes. It is difficult to keep the translations up to date. Therefore, we would like to adopt a different model for localization. Starting from the coming new release, we will only provide a slim version of iTerm that only includes the resource for English. We will provide downloads for other languages if we receive localization packages from our users. That way, we can focus on creating a bug-free user interface. It will also take some burden off our translators. Whoever would like to help can download an existing localization package, update it and send it back to us.

Many thanks to those who have made their contributions!

Display Responsiveness

2006/9/18

Many people have complaints about the refreshing rate and the overall responsiveness of iTerm. We have been trying to strike a balance between CPU usage and program responsiveness. As this balance very much depends on the user hardware as well as software configurations, it should be configurable. So I think many of you would be glad to know that we have added a UI to allow the adujstion of this setting. It's in the preference menu. Use a small number for a faster refreshing rate and better responsiveness, for example, when you are editing a file using vi. On the other hand, if you have a lot things scrolling by quickly that you don't really care, set it to a larger number. This allows CPU to rest a little bit more. The original setting corresponds to the middle of the sliding bar.

iTerm Growling

2006/9/15

We are happily announcing that iTerm now integrates the support for Growl. You need to have Growl installed. Besides a few tab status related messages (you can choose which one you need from Growl's preference setting), iTerm now also supports an escape sequence that sends message via Growl: ESC ]9;string^G.

For example, if you would like to get an alert after a long make, do this under bash will help: